The conference opened with Sinead and Tony speaking of the various tips and tricks that can be used while playing the invigorating game of Minecraft. They discussed how we can incorporate minecraft into our education system. Not only allowing kids to have fun but enabling them to learn in the process.

Today at #cesicon Caitlin and Monique interviewed Brendan Tangney following his keynote address.

Brendan opened the conference by speaking about his work with Bridge 21. We asked him about getting girls more involved and engaged with subjects such as maths and science and about the challenges going with that. He also told us about how Bridge 21 has impacted on both the students and teachers involved and this is important for them.

Sinead O’Sullivan talked about the safety of the internet and how we should be aware of it. She talked about how be act responsibly online and on social media. She talked about how in a community you have to act a certain way and that online the same rules apply.

Cara and Roisin interviewed Maggie Green from Genius Journals today at CESICon 2017. Maggie Green is a primary school teacher who works on Genius Journals with her class. Genius Journals allow children to explore their thoughts and ideas and to develop concepts and designs. Maggie has found that since implementing Genius Journals into her class the children are more eager to learn and attendance has increased.

We are a group of attendees at the CESI conference 2017 in St. Patrick’s College DCU. Elaine McAuliffe from Scoil Dara, Kilcock; Cara McDermott from Cavan Institute; Catherine Fox from CMETB and Martin Bailey from Animate2Educate. The Youth Media Team have provided us with an amazing opportunity to learn more about what they do, how they do it, etc, etc.

The tables were turned as we were tasked with interviewing them. Within 5 minutes we had learned about all the incredible work they do, and were enriched with ideas as we return to our workplaces.

It’s actually much more straightforward than we anticipated and every school should be implementing this!

Finn and Chris interview Derek Breen. We found out how he doesnt mind doing talks in different countries as long as he has his flight paid. We also learned of his hatred for power point and how he involves t-shirts (that he creates using scratch) in his talks. We also heard of https://scratch.mit.edu/users/bubble103/ the creator of “Colour Divide” and what she is up to since.

Due to technical difficulties we are unable to post our interview yet 🙁

Amy and Roisin interviewed Leigh Graves Wolf. Leigh is from Michigan State University and delivered a Spotlight presentation and talked about design thinking. In the interview she talked about who she was and how much design thinking can progress in the future.

Caitlin and Roisin interviewed David Pollard at #cesicon. David spoke about his work with Learning Tech Labs. He told us how they are community of technologists,designers,educators and entrepreneurs sharing knowledge and creating solutions for better education. He told us about how that community has developed and where to find it.

During our Youth Media Team workshop we got interviewed by Claire,Ailís and Gavin. They asked us about how the work of the Youth Media Team and our experience with it. They also asked us about our favourite interviews, possible interviews and people we might like to interview in the future. They asked us about difficulties and how we overcame them.